Ron DeSantis is not yet a candidate for US President, but it looks more and more like it. The Governor of Florida has just started a diplomatic tour of Japan. In Tokyo, he met the Prime Minister. According to the American press, there is no doubt that DeSantis wants to work on his international stature before seeking the Republican nomination against his rival and great favorite Donald Trump.
With our correspondent in Miami, David Thomson
A meeting between a governor and a Japanese Prime Minister, the scene is rather unusual according to the washington postunless, notes the great American daily, that Fumio Kishida sees in Ron DeSantis a future presidential candidate.
Officially in any case, this diplomatic tour has only one objective and it is economic, but as soon as he arrives in Japan, the governor of Florida is assailed with questions about his dropout in the polls against his rival Donald Trump.
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A matter of time
” I am not a candidate, we will see if and when that will change “, swears DeSantis, tense smile and wide-eyed, an image immediately mocked on social networks.
But behind the scenes, his entourage is active and makes no secret of it: the candidacy of Ron DeSantis, 44, for the Republican nomination is only a matter of time.
This tour, which should take him to Israel, South Korea and the United Kingdom, aims to consolidate an international stature that he lacks, all the more so after his risky statements about the war in Ukraine which he had described at the end of March as simply ” territorial dispute “, before backpedaling. A comment that had sown doubt in Republican circles about his ability to endorse a presidential candidacy.